Isn’t there a big difference between a random janitor with a gun and a Secret Service agent with a gun?

What is it with conservatives and their inability to understand that qualifications actually exist for jobs? It really is starting to seem of a piece with their insistence that President Obama and Justice Sotomayor are obviously less qualified for their jobs than any random white man you could pick out in the street because, well, just look at them, amirite?

Let everyone who wants a gun go through the background checks and proficiency training and tests that Secret Service agents go through REPEATEDLY and they can have all the guns they want. Fail once and you’re out. Deal!

I would call that NRA ad something worse. I would call it a veiled threat.

It isn’t just “hypocrisy.” What the NRA seems to be saying is:

“Go ahead, Mister President … if you enact some gun control regulations we don’t like, drop your armed Secret Service protection. And the protection on your family. And then you can live in constant fear of some freedom-loving gun enthusiast using his firearms to express their displeasure. Which is insecurity you deserve, since you have stepped on their Second Amendment rights.”

It is a veiled threat. It is just a hop and a skip between this snarky claim of “hypocrisy” and considering what kinds of threats that the Secret Service protects against.